Right, he did call a diver a pedophile. But overall he seemed sane back then. As far as people who worked with Musk saying horrible things about him, isn't that true for just about every CEO?
There is a difference between "wow my CEO really sucks" and "wow my CEO had another kid with an employee, regularly talks about the importance of breaking labor laws, shows up to work visibly high on a regular basis, and enjoys making racist comments about Apartheid."
Why do you think this sticker [1] is so popular? It is because prior to Twitter acquisition, despite some blemishes, most people thought Elon Musk is a smart but otherwise normal person. Most of the things you mentioned came later.
Most people were _not paying attention_, until the Twitter thing made it impossible to ignore. But there was all sorts of unhinged behaviour for years before.
I never said he was unpopular. I said you weren't paying attention - and every single thing I mentioned happened before the acquisition. You are being willfully ignorant.
The comment is only the most visible bit. He hired a private investigator to find rumours about him as well. And tripled down with various arguments like a supposed child bride.
Musk has so many wacky things, public spats with his trans kid. Attacking the kid publicly. Imagine how hard that would be, your name is out there. Your extremely famous dad is talking about you? You are just a very vulnerable avg person.
